Follow PR Daily on:

Sephora pulls reality star’s lipstick after complaints over name

In a store full of nothing but makeup, perfume, and skin products, it can take a lot for a specific product, say, a particular shade of lipstick, to stand out. A lot of times, companies will dream up eye-catching names for their hues that push the envelope and may walk up to the line of being offensive, but stay just shy of it.

Occasionally, they leap right over it.

Beauty chain Sephora determined that reality TV star Kat Von D’s line of lipsticks did the latter with one shade dubbed “Celebutard.” The company pulled the lipstick from its shelves last week and offered a statement that said, "It has come to our attention that the name of one shade of a lipstick we carry has caused offense to some of our clients and others. We are deeply sorry for that.”

Emily Norman, a parent of two children with developmental disabilities, told Atlanta’s NBC affiliate, “I could not believe that a successful company in 2013 would use such a derogatory and mocking name for their lipstick. It's more than that to millions of families with children that are trying to stop the use of a word that is so offensive.”

People with disabilities are the last to benefit from what some might call "political correctness," and what I would call basic human decency. "Retard" is still bandied about - even by people I like a lot, like Howard Stern and his crew, who still have wack packers with the R word in their name.

Apparently, not everyone saw a problem with the name.

The tweet has since been deleted, but Von D reportedly tweeted, “At the end of the day, it’s just a f***ing lipstick.”